Adding to the worries of the UPA Government, in particular, and the economic establishment of the country as a whole, inflation has jumped to a record level of 6.73% during the week ended February 3 from 6.58% recorded for the previous week.

It seems all efforts of the Reserve Bank of India to rein in the inflationary pressures by using a tight monetary policy and offering various fiscal sops have failed to contain inflation. Alarmed by the spurt in inflation, the government on Thursday announced a quick downward revision of fuel prices to contain the rising prices of food articles and other products.

The prices have been pushed up by costlier primary items, mainly non-vegetarian food articles and some manufactured products. The rise in wholesale prices-based inflation rate could be gauged from the fact that it stood at a mere 3.98% in a year-ago period.

Among food articles, prices of some non-vegetarian products rose exorbitantly. For example, pork became expensive by 26%, eggs were costlier by 7% and mutton was available at 4% higher prices. Prices of urad, masur, moong, condiments, spices, fruits and vegetables, bajra, niger seed, cotton seed oil, rape and mustard oil, ground nut oil also rose.

However, the prices of barley, wheat, jaggery, suji, maida, atta and imported oils declined, as did the prices of aviation turbine fuel, naphtha, furnace oil and electricity.